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" I consider a poem to be a kind of experiment where a number of elements are brought together under test conditions to see how they will interact to create meaning or relevance. "

John Barton

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Together

Test

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" Poetry is but another form of inquiry into the nature of phenomena, using with its own unique procedures and tools. "

" Some readers allow their prejudices to blind them. A good reader knows how to disregard inappropriate responses. "

" I sometimes like to tinker with poems that have failed, ones that I have sent aside. Even years afterward, I will revisit them if there is something about them that I cannot give up on. "

John Barton

Years

Will

" I find it exhausting to administer a magazine without an office or paid staff. "

" Sometimes poetry is inspired by the conversation entered into by reading other poems. "

" A literary journal is intended to connect writer with reader; the role of the editor is to mediate. "

" If poetry alters the way in which the reader views the world, then it has had its desired effect. "

" You can never step into the same book twice, because you are different each time you read it. "

" I feel very connected to poets across the country. "

" Reading should be a repeat performance. "

" The poet must decide not to impose his feelings in order to write without sentimentality. "

" I have become intrigued with the combining of seemingly unrelated ideas or images, or the drawing upon the many, sometimes dissimilar, meanings a word might have. "

" Writing can sometimes be exploitative. I like to take a few steps of remove in order to respect the privacy of the subject. If readers make the link, they have engaged with the poem. "

" I would not say I chose to write long poems on a conscious level. The long poem has been a relative constant. "

" The community of poets I belong to is not as close as it used to be, if only for the fact that our lives have become busier: jobs, children, and the like. "

John Barton

Children

Fact

" I became intrigued with colour theory. The absurd pronouncements of the Colour Institute, a group that decides what colours are hot each year or season, amused me. "

John Barton

Season

Year

" An experienced reader uses the poem as an agent of inquiry. This makes poetry very exciting, unstable, and interactive. "

" To me many short poems read and write like beginnings that simply whet my appetite; I want to get over that. "

John Barton

Want

Short

" The experiment of the poem is mostly intuitive. I write the first draft, pulling in the various elements that interest me, in the hope that their being combined will lead to some kind of insight. "

" In the past, poetry came in the form of spells and chants used to effect change. "

" Most victims of my autobiographical verse are either far too polite, remarkably understanding unaware that I have written poems about them. "

" The reader's challenge is to replicate the experiment by reading the poem and to draw their own conclusions. "

" No poem is easily grasped; so why should any reader expect fast results? "

" The point of an experiment is not to arrive at a predetermined end point, to prove or disprove anything, but to deliver a poem that reveals much about the process taken. "